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N Korea fires short-range missiles into seahttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/kUyQhWqXuos/N-Korea-fires-short-range-missiles-into-sea
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guides a target-striking contest of the special operation forces of the Korean People&#39;s Army (KPA) to occupy islands in this undated picture provided by KCNA in Pyongyang on Aug 25, 2017. KCNA via Reuters
North Korea fired several short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast early on Saturday, South Korea and the US military said, as the two allies conducted annual joint military drills that the North denounces as preparation for war.
The US military&rsquo;s Pacific Command said it had detected three short-range ballistic missiles, fired over a 20 minute period. All of the missiles failed, with one blowing up almost immediately after launch, while two others failed in flight, it added.
The South Korean Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectiles were launched from the North&rsquo;s eastern Kangwon province and flew in a northeasterly direction about 250 km (155 miles) into the sea.
Pacific Command said the missiles did not pose a threat to the US mainland or to the Pacific territory of Guam, which North Korea had threatened earlier this month to surround in a &ldquo;sea of fire&rdquo;.
Tensions had eased somewhat since a harsh exchange of words between Pyongyang and Washington after US President Donald Trump had warned North Korean leader Kim Jong Un he would face &ldquo;fire and fury&rdquo; if he threatened the United States.
North Korea&rsquo;s last missile test on July 28 was for an intercontinental ballistic missile designed to fly 10,000 km (6,200 miles). That would put parts of the US mainland within reach and prompted heated exchanges that raised fears of a new conflict on the peninsula.
Japan&rsquo;s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the missiles did not reach its territory or exclusive economic zone and did not pose a threat to Japan&rsquo;s safety.
MILITARY DRILLS
The South Korean and US militaries are in the midst of the annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian drills, which the North routinely describes as preparation for invasion, that involve computer simulations of a war to test readiness and run until Aug 31.
The region where the missiles were launched, Kittaeryong, is a known military test site frequently used by the North for short-range missile drills, said Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.
&ldquo;So rather than a newly developed missile, it looks to be short range missiles they fired as part of their summer exercise and also in response to the Ulchi Freedom Guardian drill,&rdquo; he said.
The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with the North because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North routinely says it will never give up its weapons programmes, saying they are necessary to counter perceived US hostility.
Washington has repeatedly urged China, North Korea&rsquo;s main ally and trading partner, to do more to rein in Pyongyang.
China&rsquo;s commerce ministry late on Friday banned North Korean individuals and enterprises from doing new business in China, in line with United Nations Security Council sanctions passed earlier this month.
TRUMP BRIEFED
The White House said Trump had been briefed about the latest missiles but did not immediately have further comment.
The US State Department did not immediately comment about the Saturday launches. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson earlier this week credited the North with showing restraint by not launching a missile since the July ICBM test.
Tillerson had said he hoped that the lack of missiles launches or other &ldquo;provocative acts&rdquo; by Pyongyang could mean a path could be opening for dialogue &ldquo;sometime in the near future.&rdquo;
Trump also expressed optimism earlier this week about a possible improvement in relations. &ldquo;I respect the fact that he is starting to respect us,&rdquo; Trump said of Kim.
North Korea&rsquo;s state media reported on Saturday that Kim had guided a contest of amphibious landing and aerial strike by its army against targets modelled after South Korean islands near the sea border on the west coast.
In a report that lacked the North&rsquo;s usual belligerent threat against the United States, its official KCNA news agency quoted Kim as telling its Army that it &ldquo;should think of mercilessly wiping out the enemy with arms only and occupying Seoul at one go and the southern half of Korea.&rdquo;
A new poster on a North Korean propaganda website on Saturday showed a missile dealing &ldquo;a retaliatory strike of justice&rdquo; against the US mainland, threatening to &ldquo;wipe out the United States, the source of evil, without a trace.&rdquo;
On Wednesday, Kim ordered the production of more rocket engines and missile warheads during a visit to a chemical institute of the Academy of Defence Science, an agency that he fostered to develop its ballistic missile programme.
Diagrams and what appeared to be missile parts shown in photographs published in the North&#39;s state media suggested Pyongyang was pressing ahead with building a longer-range ballistic missile that could potentially reach any part of the US mainland including Washington.
It is also believed to be developing a new solid-fuel missile of a class that it has previously tested in submarine launches.
&nbsp;<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/kUyQhWqXuos" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 26 Aug 2017, 12:17:17http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/assets/images/news_images/2017/08/26/thumbnails/_80743.jpghttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80743/N-Korea-fires-short-range-missiles-into-seahttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80743/N-Korea-fires-short-range-missiles-into-seaRail links with Khulna restoredhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/DOAlFXPLaYo/Rail-links-with-Khulna-restored
Rail communication of Khulna with the rest of the country was restored on Saturday after an eleven-hour disruption caused by a derailment.
Rail officials said that a compartment of Rajshahi-bound Sagordari Express, including engine, had derailed near to Poradah Rail Station at about 8:00 pm on Friday.
Poradah station master Shariful Islam said the rail communication was restored partially through a down line at about 7:30 am after a relief train from Ishwardi put the compartment back on the track in an 11-hour frantic effort.
The rail communication of Khulna with Dhaka and North-Bengal will hopefully be restored fully by this noon, the station master added.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/DOAlFXPLaYo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 26 Aug 2017, 12:16:46http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/assets/images/news_images/2017/08/26/thumbnails/_80742.jpghttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80742/Rail-links-with-Khulna-restoredhttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80742/Rail-links-with-Khulna-restored89 dead in Myanmar militant attackshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/kCykua585ec/89-dead-in-Myanmar-militant-attacks
Authorities say the death toll in Friday&#39;s militant attacks has risen to 89 with many more bodies of Rohingya insurgents found in areas around the scene of fighting.
Many insurgents, injured during the attacks, were found dead in fields and roads around the zone of attack that encompassed three townships - Maung Taw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung. &nbsp;That&#39;s a much wider area covered by the rebels compared to the insurgent attacks in October last year.
At least security personnel -- 11 policemen and 1 soldier -- were killed when the militants attacked 19 police stations and outposts and then tried to storm a camp of the 552 Light Infantry regiment at Khamara.
Military sources said at least 1,000 insurgents were involved in the attack, but residents in Maung Taw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung said many armed villagers joined the Rohingya rebels in the attacks with just sharp cutting weapons like machetes.
The militants staged coordinated simultaneous attacks on 19 police outposts that cover 24 villages around Maung Taw and tried unsuccessfully to storm an army base, the Myanmar authorities said.
The attacks came within hours of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, presenting his Rakhine Commission report to State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, marking a huge escalation in the Muslim insurgency in Rakhine State.
The long dormant insurgency suddenly came to the fore in October last year, when Rohingya rebels killed nine policemen in coordinated attacks, prompting a massive military response marred by allegations of extra-judicial executions, rape and arson.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a group previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, or &ldquo;Faith Movement&rdquo;, which instigated the October attacks, claimed responsibility for the early morning attacks and threatened more.
Just past midnight on Friday, around 1am local time, 19 police posts in 24 villages around Maung Taw township in northern Rakhine were encircled and attacked by guerrillas and villagers armed with automatic rifles and sharp weapons, said a statement from the State Counsellor&#39;s Information office.
The police stations and outposts attacked were identified as &nbsp;Natchaung, Tamantha, Kuntheepin-Chaungwa, Nantthataung, Nantthataung-Chaungwa, Meetaik-Chaungwa, Kyeekyun, Zeepin-chaungwa, Laungdon, Thihokyun, Zinpaingnyar, Tharaykonboung, Panyaungbingyi, Shweyinaye, Myinlut, Alethankyaw, Udaung (Natala), TaungBazzar, Phaungtawpyin and Maungtaw (Natala).
Eleven policemen were killed in the attack, most of them brutally hacked with sharp weapons, bleeding to death from cut wounds, said Maung Taw MP U Maung Ohn.
A Tatmadaw (military) press release said one soldier has also been killed when the rebels tried to storm the camp of the 552 Light Infantry Regiment at Khamara at 3am. The rebels were beaten back, the statement said.
It said at least 77 rebels had been gunned down, many of them when they tried to storm the camp.
But residents in areas around the three embattled townships told Mizzima on condition of anonymity that many of those attacking the police stations were not hard core insurgents but armed villagers who are bitter over military atrocities.
&quot;Many such villagers were later gunned down by troops during combing operations,&quot; one senior resident at MaungDaw said. &nbsp;
The military press release said some Rohingya houses have been set on fire but said the &quot;Rohingyas were doing it themselves to embarrass the government and security forces.&quot;
Rakhine police chief Colonel Sein Lwin confirmed the rise in deaths was due to several badly injured policemen and rebels succumbing to both bullet and deep cut wounds.
He said the road from Maung Taw to Buthidaung had been closed down to vehicular traffic.
Pannpwint website carried pictures of a tall insurgent lying dead in a paddy field with a very long sword by his side. It also carried pictures of badly hacked policemen lying dead. Mizzima avoids carrying such pictures for risk of inciting inter-ethnic tensions.
It was not yet clear whether those attackers killed were all armed guerillas or had some villagers among them or a mix of the two.
The Rohingya militants appear to be adopting offensive tactics used by Maoists in India or Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Muslim insurgents in India&#39;s Kashmir, when they mobilise a large number of their supporters in the villages to conceal their guerrilla formations and then join the attack with much numbers to overwhelm the smaller deployments in outlying police stations or military outposts. .
The villagers who have suffered at the hands of security forces tend to be more brutal in hacking and slashing the security forces.
&quot;That upsets the forces and leads to more atrocities, which means more alienation of the local population and more recruits for the insurgents. The rebels are working to a plan for not only demoralising their forces but also creating a recruitment base. It is now up to the military leadership to see through the rebel designs and control their forces,&quot; says regional insurgency specialist Subir Bhaumik, who has worked extensively on guerrilla campaigns in South Asia.
This appears to be the biggest and most coordinated Rohingya rebel attacks since security forces started special operations in the Mayu mountains of northern Rakhine. The 33rd Light Infantry Division is involved in the massive operation designed to encircle the Rohingya rebel bases, block their escape routes to Bangladesh and decimate them.
On Thursday, former UN secretary general Kofi Annan warned against &#39;long drawn operations&#39; in Rakhine and stressed creating human rights awareness amongst Myanmar army and other security forces involved in the counter-insurgency operations during his meeting with Tatmadaw chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
The general later expressed his angst, &#39;questioning some facts&#39; in the Kofi Annan report.
Analysts believe the attacks were perhaps designed to divert the focus of the operations and force security forces into a heavy static deployment that would draw away numbers from the offensive operations.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) claimed responsibility for the attacks in a Twitter post but did not either mention the number of deaths or how many fighters were involved.
In the Twitter post, ARSA, accusing the Myanmar forces of killings and rape, said they had just taken &nbsp; &quot;defensive actions&quot; in more than 25 different locations.
The township of Rathetaung in northern Rakhine has been under &quot;a blockade for more than two weeks which is starving the Rohingya people to death&quot;, it said.
&quot;As they prepare to do the same in Maungdaw &hellip; we had to eventually step in to drive the Burmese colonising forces away.&quot;
The group warned of more attacks to come.
ARSA is led by Ata Ullah, a Rohingya man born in Saudi Arabia.
It has denied links to foreign militant groups but Indian and Bangladesh intelligence says ARSA has operational links to Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, Indian Mujahideen and Pakistan&#39;s Lashkar-e-Tayabba (LET)
Mizzima had earlier exposed a LET effort to recruit Rohingya youths for militant action under cover of providing relief in Rakhine camps through its humanitarian front, Fala e Insaniyat.&nbsp;
&nbsp;<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/kCykua585ec" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 26 Aug 2017, 12:11:21http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/assets/images/news_images/2017/08/26/thumbnails/_80741.jpghttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80741/89-dead-in-Myanmar-militant-attackshttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80741/89-dead-in-Myanmar-militant-attacksHarvey hits Texas as Category 4 hurricanehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/Ms1g-A9yIAY/Harvey-hits-Texas-as-Category-4-hurricane
Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coast on Friday as a Category 4 storm, bringing life-threatening winds and the likelihood of catastrophic flooding as the most powerful storm in over a decade hit the mainland United States.
The hurricane made landfall northeast of Corpus Christi around 10 pm CDT (0300 GMT) with maximum winds of 130 miles per hour (209 km per hour). The storm is expected to move slowly over the Texas and Louisiana coasts for days, with forecasts for storm surges of up to 13 feet (4 meters) and over 3 feet (90 cm) of rain.
As many as 6 million people were believed to be in Harvey&rsquo;s path, as is the heart of America&rsquo;s oil refining operations. The storm&rsquo;s impact on refineries has already pushed up gasoline prices while the US Environmental Protection Agency lifted some rules on gasoline to reduce shortages.
Fueled by the warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Harvey became the first Category 4 hurricane to wallop the United States since Charley in 2004 and the first to hit Texas since Carla in 1961.
About 30 miles (45 km) from Corpus Christi and moving northwest, Harvey caused scattered power outages both on the coast near Galveston and 100 miles (160 km) inland.
Donald Trump, facing the first large-scale natural disaster of his presidency, said on Twitter he signed a disaster proclamation which &ldquo;unleashes the full force of government help&rdquo; shortly before Harvey made landfall.
While thousands fled the expected devastating flooding and destruction, many residents defied mandatory evacuation orders and stocked up on food, fuel and sandbags, drawing the ire of local authorities.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re suggesting if people are going to stay here, mark their arm with a Sharpie pen with their name and Social Security number,&rdquo; Rockport Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Rios told reporters Friday, according to media reports. &ldquo;We hate to talk about things like that. It&rsquo;s not something we like to do but it&rsquo;s the reality. People don&rsquo;t listen.&rdquo;
There were initial reports of extensive damage in Rockport, near the eye of the hurricane, including structural damage to a high school, hotel and other buildings being used as shelters, according to local media.
As a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, Harvey could uproot trees, destroy homes and disrupt utilities for days. It is the first major hurricane, of Category 3 or more, to hit the mainland United States since Hurricane Wilma struck Florida in 2005.
In Corpus Christi, a city of 320,000 under voluntary evacuation, strengthening winds buffeted the few trucks and cars that continued to circulate on the streets. The storm toppled wooden roadwork signs and littered the streets with pieces of palm trees as white caps rocked sailboats in their docks.
About 85 miles (137 km) north in Victoria, Mayor Paul Polasek told CNN he estimated that 60 per cent to 65 per cent of the town&rsquo;s 65,000 residents defied the mandatory evacuation order.
Jose Rengel, a 47-year-old who works in construction, said he was one of the few people in Jamaica Beach in Galveston that did not heed a voluntary evacuation order.
&nbsp;&ldquo;All the shops are empty,&rdquo; he said as the sky turned black and rain fell. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like a tornado went in and swept everything up.&rdquo;
With the hurricane lashing the Texas coast, at least three cruise ships operated by Carnival Corp with thousands of passengers aboard were forced to change their plans to sail for the Port of Galveston. Two of them headed New Orleans to pick up fresh supplies, while the third delayed its departure from Cozumel, Mexico.
Louisiana and Texas declared states of disaster, authorizing the use of state resources to prepare.
The NHC&rsquo;s latest tracking model shows the storm sitting southwest of Houston for more than a day, giving the nation&rsquo;s fourth most populous city a double dose of rain and wind.
The city warned residents of flooding from close to 20 inches (60 cm) of rain over several days.
But Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner advised residents not to leave en masse, saying &ldquo;no evacuation orders have been issued for the city.&rdquo; Chaotic traffic from a rushed evacuation in 2005 with Hurricane Rita proved tragic. &ldquo;Calm and care!&rdquo; he said in a tweet.
GASOLINE PRICES SPIKE
Gasoline stations on the south Texas coast were running out of fuel as thousands of residents fled the region. US gasoline prices spiked as the storm shut down 22 per cent of Gulf of Mexico oil production, according to the US government.
At a Willis, Texas, station, about 50 miles (77 km) north of Houston, Corey Martinez, 40, was heading to Dallas from his Corpus Christi home.
&quot;It has been pretty stressful. We&#39;re just trying to get ahead of the storm,&quot; he said. &quot;We&#39;ve never been through a hurricane before.&quot;
More than 45 per cent of the country&#39;s refining capacity is along the US Gulf Coast, and nearly a fifth of the nation&#39;s crude oil is produced offshore. Ports from Corpus Christi to Texas City, Texas, were closed to incoming vessels and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Anadarko Petroleum Corp, Exxon Mobil Corp and others have evacuated staff from offshore oil and gas platforms.
Concern that Harvey could cause shortages in fuel supply drove benchmark gasoline prices to their highest in four months, before profit taking pulled back prices. Meanwhile, US gasoline margins hit their strongest levels in five years for this time of year.
The US government said it would make emergency stockpiles of crude available if needed to plug disruptions. It has regularly used them to dampen the impact of previous storms on energy supplies.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/Ms1g-A9yIAY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 26 Aug 2017, 10:53:15http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/assets/images/news_images/2017/08/26/thumbnails/_80740.jpghttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80740/Harvey-hits-Texas-as-Category-4-hurricanehttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80740/Harvey-hits-Texas-as-Category-4-hurricaneProtests kill 29 after Indian ‘godman’ convicted of rapehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/FaOlXTFmBhA/Protests-kill-29-after-Indian-%E2%80%98godman%E2%80%99-convicted-of-rape
Violent protests erupted in Haryana on Friday, killing at least 29 people, after a court convicted self-styled &ldquo;godman&rdquo; Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh of raping two women, angering thousands of his supporters who said he was innocent, the state chief minister said.
Singh, the head of a social welfare and spiritual group, was found guilty of raping two followers in a case dating back to 2002 at the headquarters of his Dera Sacha Sauda group in Sirsa, Haryana.
Supporters rampaged in response, attacking railway stations, petrol stations and television vans in towns across Punjab and Haryana, witnesses said.
At least 29 people were killed in Panchkula town where the court returned its verdict on Singh and more than 200 people were injured in Haryana state.
&ldquo;We tried to prevent the unrest in every possible way, but the protesters were totally out of control,&rdquo; Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal told Reuters.
&ldquo;All the injured are getting the best treatment in government hospitals,&rdquo; he said.
Dozens of cars were burning in Panchkula town while a bloodied body lay in the middle of a road. About 500 army soldiers were deployed to restore order.
&ldquo;The situation is coming under control,&rdquo; Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said in New Delhi.
Television footage showed frantic scenes outside a hospital in Panchkula, with medical staff hurriedly transferring injured patients from ambulances on to wheelchairs and stretchers. Smoke could be seen rising in another part of town.
Singh commands a following that he claims is in the millions, many of them elderly men and women in the countryside, drawn by his social welfare programmes such as medical camps and disaster relief.
The court, which held him guilty of rape, set his sentencing for Monday when there could be more protests. He faces a minimum of seven years in prison.
Singh, a burly, bearded man who has scripted and starred in his own films, had denied the charges. He had called on his followers through a video message to remain peaceful.
A K Dhir, one of his lawyers, said Singh was innocent and his followers had every right to express their outrage.
Protests also erupted in Punjab, New Delhi and the neighbouring state of Rajasthan. Supporters of Singh set fire to some buses and two empty train coaches in the capital.
Nearly 1,000 members of his Sacha Sauda group were detained.
A close aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi said central and state officials had been instructed to work round the clock to restore law and order.
&nbsp;&ldquo;The instances of violence today are deeply distressing. I strongly condemn the violence &amp; urge everyone to maintain peace,&rdquo; Modi said on Twitter.
POWER OF HOLY MEN
Some Indian &ldquo;holy&rdquo; men can summon thousands of supporters onto the streets. Their systems of patronage and sermons are hugely popular with people who consider the government has failed them.
In 2014, the attempted arrest of another guru on murder charges ended with his followers attacking police with clubs and stones.
Television channels showed motorcycles, cars and buses in flames in Panchkula as hundreds of police personnel in riot gear watched helplessly. The mob also toppled a TV outdoor broadcasting van, while several news channels said their journalists were targeted.
Besides the rape charges, Singh is also under investigation over allegations that he convinced 400 of his male followers to undergo castration, allegations he denies.
A variety of reasons have been given for why the men agreed to castration, including promises of becoming closer to god.
Singh&#39;s two films, &quot;Messenger of God&quot; and its sequel, include sequences in which he fights off villains and tosses burning motorbikes into the air.
In his spiritual avatar, Singh dresses in plain white traditional clothes, giving sermons or planting trees. In the movies he dons bejewelled costumes, rides motorbikes and sends bad guys flying.&nbsp;
&nbsp;<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/FaOlXTFmBhA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 26 Aug 2017, 10:33:39http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/assets/images/news_images/2017/08/26/thumbnails/_80739.jpghttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80739/Protests-kill-29-after-Indian-‘godman’-convicted-of-rapehttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80739/Protests-kill-29-after-Indian-‘godman’-convicted-of-rapeA bridge project sees eight PDs in seven yearshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/aDdul2YI6uM/A-bridge-project-sees-eight-PDs-in-seven-years
A bridge-construction project has seen eight project directors (PD) in seven years sans physical work, officials said.
With seven years having elapsed, the project&#39;s physical works are yet to be started on the Shitalakhya Bridge though its current deadline was over in June this year.
In the meantime, the government has extended the project-execution deadline thrice from the original timeline between November 2010 and December 2013.
Besides, the project cost has also been revised (special) by the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges (MoRT&amp;B), raising the amount by 43 per cent to Tk 5.39 billion.
Now, the project-executing agency has sought 60 per cent higher funds and four more years for completing the scheme.
All this happened in the Roads and Highway Department (RHD)&#39;s 3rd Shitalakhya Bridge project. The bridge connects Syedpur (Madanganj) and Bandar (Narayanganj) points across the river.
Officials said the RHD recently sought revision of the Shitalakhya Bridge project for a second time with the cost-overrun by 60 per cent to Tk 6.03 billion from the original Tk 3.77 billion.
It has also sought four more years up to 2021 from the existing deadline of the financial year (FY) 2016-17 to complete the 1.29-kilometre bridge building which will connect Narayanganj with the capital city, Dhaka.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the project in November 2010 with a cost of Tk 3.77 billion for completing it by December 2013.
Out of the total cost, the government earmarked Tk3.11 billion as project aid, to be supplied by a development partner, while the rest Tk659.8 million proposed to be spent from government exchequer.
As per the request of the RHD, the Planning Commission (PC) extended the execution deadline for the project without raising the cost on two occasions -- first time up to December 2014 and second up to December 2016.
Then the minister for the MoRT&amp;B got the cost enhanced by 43 per cent to Tk 5.39 billion through a special revision in June 2015.
For a third time around, the PC has extended the project-implementation deadline up to June 2017.
Meanwhile, PD of the project M Shamsul Huq said firstly, the project execution has been delayed due to absence of external fund confirmation by the development partner.
Besides, delay in appointment of supervision consultants and slow approval process from the selected donor--Saudi Fund for Development (SFD)--are two other key reasons that held back the project execution, he told the FE.
&quot;Now all the obstacles have been removed. Early this year, we awarded contract to a Chinese company for construction of the bridge. The contractor is mobilising machinery and necessary equipment for building the Shitalakhya bridge. We hope work on the main bridge will start soon,&quot; Mr Huq said.
Asked about the proposed project revision with cost escalation, the PD said the cost of the project increased due mainly to the higher bidding price by the contractor and increase in land prices and other construction materials.
The RHD signed a contract with Sinohydro worth Tk 4.48 billion in February 2017 for constructing the bridge within 36 months.
&quot;Besides, one more year after the 36 months construction timeline for the contractor has been kept aside as the &quot;defect liability period&quot; for the contractor. Defect-liability period means guarantee of the works by the contractor,&quot; he added.
Mr Huq said: &quot;Those above factors have forced us to revise the project with higher cost and extended time up to June 2021.&quot;
According to the Economic Relations Division (ERD), the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) confirmed Tk 3.33 billion worth of loans for the Shitalakhya Bridge project in July 2014.
Usually the development partner releases funds in several tranches based on the expenditure of the Project Aid by the executing agency.
The PD, Mr Huq, said: &quot;Some works have already been started. We sought funds from the SFD in March 2017 against the expenditure. The development partner is yet to release the funds.&quot;
Former caretaker government Finance and Planning Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam said the government should introduce rewards for PDs and project staffs.
&quot;If any project is not executed properly, the PD and involved officials should be punished. And those who will complete the project successfully should be awarded,&quot; he told this correspondent.
&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;kabirhumayan10@gmail.com<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/aDdul2YI6uM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 26 Aug 2017, 01:29:15http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/assets/images/news_images/2017/08/26/thumbnails/_80738.jpghttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80738/A-bridge-project-sees-eight-PDs-in-seven-yearshttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80738/A-bridge-project-sees-eight-PDs-in-seven-yearsPension accounting body soon to help pensionershttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/Yp48QM1nffg/Pension-accounting-body-soon-to-help-pensioners
The government has initiated the process of instituting a separate &#39;Pension Accounting Office&#39; to deal with the pension-related issues under a centralized management.
This new government body is likely to come under the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General who is already working to develop an organogram for the planned entity, officials told the FE.
Around 50 thousand to 60 thousand government employees take retirement every year and, as such, become eligible for state pension.
Up until recently, the system was cumbersomely decentralised with various government agencies processing the pensioning of various segments of these employees.
For example, the Ministry of Public Administration was responsible for managing the pensions of the retirees coming from the Administration Cadre while the Ministry of Education is responsible for handling the pensions of the retirees from Education Cadre.
Recently, however, the government is increasingly looking to centralise this highly complex and decentralised system.
In the latest national budget, all the pension-related allocations for various ministries have been brought under the budget of the Finance Division. The total allocation stands at around Tk 194.81 billion.&nbsp; &nbsp;
However, to further institutionalise this centralisation process, the Finance Division recently came up with a proposal for setting up a separate Pension Accounting Office.
&quot;Apart from ensuring increased centralisation of the system, establishing a separate PAO would help to ensure better transparency and accountability,&quot; Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Finance Md. Muslim Chowdhury told the FE recently.
Officials concerned said the government is currently looking for &#39;parametric reform&#39; in its pension-management system.
To that end, an automated pension database has already been developed by the government while the automation of pension processes and use of electronic fund transfer in pension payment is also underway.
Establishing a separate PAO would especially be helpful in pension management when the government would gradually move to contributory pension scheme for its employees, insiders observed.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Apart from PAO, the government also plans to establish a separate pension cell within the Finance Division for resolving various pension- related complaints.
Such separate cell would work to resolve different pension complicacies including those related to family pension or &#39;retired but not pensioned&#39; type of cases, officials said.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;
mehdi.finexpress@gmail.com<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/Yp48QM1nffg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 26 Aug 2017, 01:27:59http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/assets/images/news_images/2017/08/26/thumbnails/_80737.jpghttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80737/Pension-accounting-body-soon-to-help-pensionershttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80737/Pension-accounting-body-soon-to-help-pensionersBiman to borrow $516.34m to make ‘delivery payment’http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/ITHKQ9zrTrs/Biman-to-borrow-$516.34m-to-make-%E2%80%98delivery-payment%E2%80%99
Biman Bangladesh Airlines (BBA) will borrow US$ 516.34 million to make final payment against the delivery of four passenger aircraft as part of its move to rebuild its fleet, officials said.
The national flag carrier has already made pre-delivery payment (PDP) to the US-based Boeing for the procurement of last four Boeing aircraft as per agreements under the government&#39;s sovereign guarantee, they added.
&quot;The rate of interest will be lower if Biman takes out loan from international financial institutions /lenders under sovereign guarantee. For this, procurement price will also come down,&quot; Shakil Meraj, General Manager (Public Relations) and focal point of BBA, told the FE on Thursday.
Biman already completed pre-delivery payment to the Boeing for procurement of four 787-800 aircraft, he mentioned.
Currently, fund is needed urgently to make the final delivery payment. The civil aviation and tourism ministry has sought sovereign guarantee from the finance ministry in favour of BBA, a senior official of the civil aviation ministry said.
&quot;We have received a letter from the civil aviation ministry, seeking sovereign guarantee for delivery payment. The finance ministry is working on this issue,&quot; a high official of the finance ministry said.
A deal was signed between Finance Division and Sonali Bank, UK to receive a loan of US$ 136 million for making pre-delivery payment. The bank has already given US$ 117.9 million to Biman.
The BBA signed two agreements with the Boeing in 2008 for purchasing four 777-300ER aircraft, two 737-800 aircraft and four 787-800 aircraft to modernise its fleet.
Four 777-300ER aeroplanes joined the Biman fleet in October-November 2011 and in February-March 2014. The fifth of the Boeing series 737-800 was delivered in 2015.
Four other aircraft, mostly 787-800, popularly known as Dream liner, are scheduled to be delivered by 2018 and 2019. It was scheduled to be delivered by 2019-2020.
Earlier, BBA cancelled a loan agreement with the Canadian company M/S Maryna (private) Limited after the latter&#39;s failure to provide the airlines with US$ 136.05 million in loans for pre-delivery payment to the Boeing within the stipulated time to buy the four passenger aircraft, a source concerned said.
Subsequently, the Biman authority has had talks with Sonali Bank UK, a wing of the biggest state-owned commercial bank, he added.
In November 2015, the national flag carrier signed a loan agreement with the Canadian company for pre-delivery payment financing to the US-based Boeing, he also said.
&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;rezamumu@gmail.com<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/ITHKQ9zrTrs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 26 Aug 2017, 01:26:31http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/assets/images/news_images/2017/08/26/thumbnails/_80736.jpghttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80736/Biman-to-borrow-$516.34m-to-make-‘delivery-payment’http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80736/Biman-to-borrow-$516.34m-to-make-‘delivery-payment’Concerns grow as Padma main bridge design not yet finalhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/9Meggz1Hm48/Concerns-grow-as-Padma-main-bridge-design-not-yet-final
The main challenge currently facing the Padma bridge project is building the main bridge without adequate and proper studies, experts said.
In the absence of detailed geotechnical, hydraulic and other related studies, they said, the Padma Multipurpose Bridge project office has now got to take support of a foreign consulting firm for the confirmation of the design of the 6.15-kilometre bridge.
Panel of experts of the project has proposed to change the design of the bridge foundation for not finding due level of depth and soil at 14 points of piers recommended by design consultant.
The office has requested a UK-based firm, High Pan Rendal, to complete the design checking by September so that the Chinese contractor does not miss upcoming dry season of construction.
But sources said design confirmation by September also would not ease the situation as ongoing rain, floods and river erosion have already made the possibility of using dry season for carrying out boring and piling for the piers of the main bridge.
As a result, doubt has already been created over meeting the government target of inauguration of the dream bridge by December 2018. The project cost is escalating for delays.
According to the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and Geological Survey Bangladesh (GSB), multidimensional studies including detailed geotechnical and geophysical ones were necessary to confirm the detailed design.
Experts argued that mud over the base level of riverbed was not deposited all on a sudden and proper soil investigation which is done during exploratory boring would certainly discover it.
They said the Padma is no doubt a dynamic river but it is not located at the mouth of two rivers, which may cause change in soil layer.
&quot;Shifting river flow and change in river layer have not taken place in a year or two&hellip;it is a matter of hundreds of thousands of years,&quot; said a geologist, preferring not to be named as Padma Bridge is a very sensitive project.
He said if layer change really takes place, it should be a matter of research.
Another expert said geophysical study could identify the change of layers all along the bridge corridor and decision must be taken through coordination of all data.
He said Padma as a dynamic river changes its river training at any time as well as takes on different characteristics as a delta.
The expert, however, aired doubt about such change in layer that increases the foundation depth from 112 metres to 124 to 128 metres.
According to sources, the design consultant, Maunsel AECOM, had conducted exploratory boring at 12 points out of proposed 40 piers. But the contractor found soil levels different at 14 points down the middle of the river.
So it is assumed that exploratory study was not done with due distances.
With half the construction period gone by, it is now recommended changes in the depth of 14 piers from 112 to 113 metres to 123 metres to 128 metres on point-to-point basis.
BUET experts, however, said design consultants&#39; study findings must be confirmed through detailed study at the stage of construction by the contractor.
Though the project&#39;s contractor, China Major Bridge Company (CMBC), started construction of the country&#39;s longest bridge in November 2014, it could not make any headway spending 33 months.
According to the progress report in July, main bridge construction of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge project (PMBP) is 8.0 per cent behind the target while the river-training work 10 per cent. With completion of approach roads on both sides and service-area development the total progress record improved to 45 per cent.
There was hardly any progress during the last six months in both main bridge and river-training works.
Though the CMBC could complete more than 150 piles of 26 piers (each pier has six piles), not a single pier has been visible till now. But the project has set a target to set up first 150-metre span on the Janjira side by next month.
Sources said both change in the design and extension of time may hike the project cost manifold, hinting at 10 per cent increase in project cost for design changes, additional costs for materials and time extension for contractors and construction-supervision consultant,
But change on non-tender items may hike the already-expensive project to unpredictable levels as the contractor then will claim more for the changes in contract and time.
Padma Multipurpose Bridge is already considered a most expensive bridge in the world in comparison with per-kilometer cost of different bridges.
PMB project office said they had guided the consulting firm to confirm the design with these issues in mind so that the existing Chinese firm has the capacity to complete the project.
&quot;Detailed soil investigation found change in the riverbed and we have proposed three to four options on foundation-design modification of couple of piers to finalise the design,&quot; said Dr Shamimuzzaman Basunia, one of the PoE members.
But the project director said Padma bridge construction could not be started soon after the detailed design was done and already 17 years have gone by since the first hydraulic study was conducted.
Sources said the BBA has already briefed the Prime Minister of the changes and possible increases in the project cost.
&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;smunima@yahoo.com<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/9Meggz1Hm48" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 26 Aug 2017, 01:24:52http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80735/Concerns-grow-as-Padma-main-bridge-design-not-yet-finalhttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80735/Concerns-grow-as-Padma-main-bridge-design-not-yet-finalWB offers job-focused credithttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/JX4v4R1OL7U/WB-offers-job-focused-credit
The World Bank has held out a development policy credit (DPC) to help create more, better and inclusive jobs in Bangladesh as employment generation slows, officials said.
After discussion with Finance Minister AMA Muhith the multilateral lending agency forwarded a policy note in this regard to the ministry of finance last week for further actions, they added. &nbsp;
According to the officials, the WB recently conducted a Jobs Diagnostic assessing the labour market on job creation, as well as the quality and inclusiveness of jobs in Bangladesh. It found multiple challenges that require concerted efforts at both policy and institutional levels.
According to the policy note, employment generation grew at a rapid annual rate of 2.7 per cent in Bangladesh during 2003-10 period before slowing sharply down to 1.8 per cent in 2010-15.
In the former period the jobs growth was faster than the growth in the working-age population, allowing for lower unemployment and higher labour-force participation. But the trends reversed in 2010-15 with an average of 64,000 jobs per year from 320,000 during 2003-10. &nbsp;
The note noted that slowing in the apparel sector underscores the need for developing a diversified export sector to create quality jobs.
While the other manufacturing sectors are growing rapidly to meet an increasing domestic demand, large-scale, export-oriented sectors beyond apparel have yet to emerge to create quality jobs.
Sluggish enterprise growth and a high share of micro-enterprise highlights the need for supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for job creation, the policy note said.
In addition to employment generation Bangladesh also needs to address the quality of jobs.
Substantial shares of workforce are engaged in informal, unpaid, or agricultural work. Only 22 per cent of male and 20 per cent of female workers are wage employees, with large shares of female workers in unpaid work and male workers in day labour.
The report also said low levels of technology, outdated management practice, and lagging skills of the workforce, especially among micro-enterprises, perpetuate the creation of low-quality jobs in Bangladesh. Amid slowing job creation and low quality of jobs, inclusive employment is becoming weak here.
The WB suggested that a comprehensive and well-coordinated programme of policy reforms could help address the jobs challenges facing Bangladesh.
The programme needs to cover three inter-linked objectives: increasing the pace of formal job creation, raising the quality of jobs, and connecting vulnerable workers to job. &nbsp;
Regulatory reform and revisiting distortionary business policies will be critical to acceleration of structural transformation and improving competitiveness, especially for non-RMG sectors and for SMEs, for faster and diversified job creation, it noted.
The WB also underscored better-planned and faster urbanisation which is critical to the development of second-tier cities and sustainability of Dhaka. In this regard strategic and coordinated investment in amenities, infrastructure, and administrative capacity is needed.
Increasing the level of formality of the labour market will contribute sustainability to enhancing the quality of jobs, the WB said, but argued that it will need to be supported by interventions that boost firm productivity.
Developing comprehensive and coherent measures for old-age support would also enhance job quality, especially since options for pensions tend to be provided through employment. &nbsp;
It said the current pension system in the country is insufficient as most workers are excluded. The government needs to find means to expand pension coverage while remaining sustainable.
The policy note also suggested that considering the growing importance of overseas employment for development, the government can make several interventions to facilitate more and safer temporary migration of workers.
Reduction in migration costs and developing policies to facilitate return and reintegration can help reduce vulnerability of migrant workers overseas, it says.
syful-islam@outlook.com&nbsp;<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/JX4v4R1OL7U" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 26 Aug 2017, 01:23:44http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80734/WB-offers-job-focused-credithttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80734/WB-offers-job-focused-creditTk 9.0b health surcharge from tobacco cos remains utilisedhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/naHkYiof04w/Tk-9.0b-health-surcharge-from-tobacco-cos-remains-utilised
Health development surcharge worth Tk 9.0 billion remained unutilised during the last three fiscal years due to lack of a specific guideline to spend the amount.
The Value Added Tax (VAT) wing under the National Board of Revenue (NBR) collected the revenue during the last three financial years, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 as 1.0 per cent &#39;health development surcharge&#39; from tobacco companies.
The amount remained unutilised in the public exchequer as the government did not use it for checking tobacco consumption and campaigning against the health hazardous item.
Slow pace of implementation and approval of the &#39;Health Development Surcharge Management Policy&#39; of the Ministry of Health is responsible for the unutilised fund, sources said.
The draft of the policy got approval in an inter-ministerial meeting on February 15, 2017.
The policy is scheduled to be placed before the cabinet in this month (August), said a senior health ministry official.
He said the National Tobacco Control Cell (NTCC) under the ministry of heath can execute a national tobacco control programme with the surcharge amount conducting research and campaign, rehabilitating tobacco-users, creating alternative jobs for tobacco farmers and ensuring overall health development.
On January 30-31, 2016 in the South Asian Speakers&#39; conference, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina instructed the authorities to adopt a national tobacco control programme with the amount of health development surcharge.
Following the instruction, the ministry of health framed the draft surcharge policy and sought opinion of nine relevant ministries including finance, agriculture and industries.
With the recommendations, the health ministry published the draft in its website on December 2016 for public opinion.
The government imposed the surcharge in the budget for FY 2014-15 and the NBR issued rules for collecting the amount.
As per the rules, the VAT authority collects the surcharge on the basis of value on which they claim VAT. The surcharge is levied for supply of locally produced tobacco products at production stage.
Some 11 countries across the world collect this type of surcharge widely known as &#39;sin-tax&#39;.
India, Thailand, Nepal, Qatar, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Iceland and Estonia collect this type of surcharge on tobacco products.
In 1976, India introduced Rs 5.0 surcharge on 1,000 sticks of cigarette. It has formed a &#39;Bidi workers welfare fund&#39; with the surcharge amount to provide free health service, maternity service and scholarships for children.
Nepal imposed Rs 0.1 in 1993 and increased it to Rs 0.2 in 2003-04.
Thailand, Qatar and Mongolia imposed 2.0 per cent health surcharge each in 2001, 2002 and 2005 respectively.
Thailand is running &#39;Thai health foundation&#39; and Nepal formed &#39;health tax fund&#39; with the surcharge.
In 2013, Vietnam and Laos introduced the surcharge at 1.0 to 2.0 per cent and US$ 0.03.
Roksana Kader, additional secretary (public health and world health) of the Ministry of Health said the draft policy has gone through several reviews and revisions following directives of the ministry of finance and stakeholders.
&quot;We hope to place the draft policy for approval of the cabinet by this month,&quot; she said.
After approval of the policy, it will be sent to the finance division to finalise the process of spending the fund of health surcharge, she said.
Md Ruhul Quddus, joint secretary and coordinator of National Tobacco Control Cell (NTCC) said the cell is now running its activities with the fund support of Bloomberg Philanthropy.
&quot;There is no government fund yet for the NTCC. We hope, the surcharge policy would be approved soon so that we can launch national tobacco control programme,&quot; he added. &nbsp;
&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;doulot_akter@yahoo.com<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/naHkYiof04w" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 26 Aug 2017, 00:38:14http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80733/Tk-9.0b-health-surcharge-from-tobacco-cos-remains-utilisedhttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80733/Tk-9.0b-health-surcharge-from-tobacco-cos-remains-utilisedPrefer green field FDI, equity capital investmenthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/Efz9eeWDsqA/Prefer-green-field--FDI,-equity-capital-investment
Bangladesh should prefer green field investment type of FDI and focus on foreign investment in the form of equity capital, said Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka (MCCI).
These types of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) would help generate more employment, bring positive trade effects, including boosting export earnings, and keep financial stability in the country.
The chamber also said that Bangladesh should prefer these types of FDIs instead of merger and acquisition (M&amp;A) type, and FDI in non-tradable service sectors and reinvested earnings.
The leading chamber made the suggestions in an editorial titled &#39;World Investment Report 2017: Investment and the Digital Economy&#39; in the August 2017 issue of its bulletin -- &#39;Chamber News&#39;.
The editorial highlighted findings of the World Investment Report (WIR) 2017, published by UNCTAD.
MCCI said M&amp;A type FDI does not generate employment and new production facilities like green field&nbsp; investment. It may lead to lay-offs, as the acquired firm is restricted.
Bangladesh should prefer FDI in the form of equity capital instead of reinvested earnings, as the latter can be a source of considerable financial instability, it said.
A prominent feature of FDI inflows into Bangladesh is that bulk of the FDI gets concentrated in non-tradable sectors. It hardly contributes anything to export earnings, but generate repayment obligations in the forms of profits, dividends and repatriation of capital, MCCI also said.
&quot;It is worth noting that in 2016 the telecom sector, a prominent service industry, attracted the highest amount of FDI in Bangladesh.&quot;
Profit remittance and profits retained (profit re-investment) by the subsidiaries are highly volatile, and indeed can be just as volatile as portfolio investment flows, especially during an economic crisis, it added.
The composition of FDI in Bangladesh has been undergoing a shift away from equity capital in the direction of reinvested earnings, it said.
As revealed in WIR 2017, reinvested earnings were the most important source of FDI in the country in 2016.
&quot;Bangladesh has set a GDP growth target of more than 7.0 per cent in the coming years. An essential pre-requisite for high economic growth is, however, a high rate of investment, which unfortunately has remained low and stagnant in the country during the recent years,&quot; MCCI noted.
According to provisional data of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the ratio of private investment to GDP in fiscal year (FY) 2016-17 was 23.01 per cent, which is only 0.02 percentage point higher than the previous FY.
But attaining 7.0 to 8.0 per cent GDP growth will call for a considerable increase in private investment, perhaps worth almost an additional 2.0 per cent of GDP every year, it opined.
However, since available domestic savings will be insufficient to meet the increased investment needs, the country will need larger doses of FDI to bridge the resource gap.
The government has put in place an elaborate incentive package to attract foreign investors, but without much success.
FDI inflow has remained low and proved insufficient to meet the country&#39;s investment needs. It is generally believed that the low volume of FDI in Bangladesh is essentially the result of the country&#39;s poor investment climate.
According to the UNCTAD report, FDI inflow to Bangladesh rose to $2.33 billion in 2016, growing by a negligible 4.3 per cent from $2.23 billion in the previous year.
The country&#39;s share of the inflow within the South Asian countries was as low as 4.0 per cent in 2016, like the previous years, and only 0.10 percent within the globe.
The UNCTAD report found huge decline in global FDI in the past year, and it also forecasts a very weak recovery in global investments this year and in the next.
According to the report, global FDI flows, after declining by 2.0 per cent in 2016, to $1.75 trillion, are expected to rise by 5.0 per cent to $1.8 trillion in 2017 and to $1.85 trillion in 2018.
However, this increase still puts global FDI below the all-time peak of $1.9 trillion in 2007.
UNCTAD warned that cross-border investments by businesses around the world have still not returned to their pre-crisis peak, almost a decade after the 2008 financial crisis.
The report noted that FDI flows to the developing countries declined 14 per cent, to $646 billion.
Flows to developing Asia fell by 15 per cent to $443 billion, with double-digit drops in most sub-regions, except South Asia.
FDI in the structurally weak and vulnerable economies remained fragile. Flows to the LDCs fell by 13 per cent, to $38 billion, and those to Small Island Developing States fell by 6.0 per cent, to $3.5 billion.
The FDI inflow in South Asia rose by a modest 6.0 per cent, to $54 billion, while the inflow to India, the largest country in the region, was stagnant at $44 billion.
The UNCTAD report has termed these developments - large declines in FDI flows to the developing and structurally weak economies and their modest recovery prospects - as quite troublesome, as companies invested less in the developing world and more in the US and other developed economies.
The report suggested that the global policy environment should remain conducive to investment in sustainable development.
The poor investment climate in turn is caused by many factors, such as problems of governance, like - policy discontinuity, red-tapism, administrative hassles, poor condition of infrastructure (roads, ports etc), inadequate and erratic supply of power and gas, shortage of skilled labor, and trade policy-related impediments.
These problems are largely endogenous, which affect both domestic and foreign investment alike. In order to encourage foreign or local entrepreneurs to invest in the country, the government will need to adopt appropriate measures to solve these problems.
&quot;While acknowledging the overriding need for obtaining larger flows of FDI, it should be understood that FDI is not an unmixed blessing. There are benefits and costs accompanying foreign investment.&quot;
&quot;The task for the policy-makers is to devise policies to increase the benefits and reduce the costs, with the aim of maximising the net benefits,&quot; it said.
In fact, FDI should not be treated indispensable for economic progress. Empirical studies on the effects of FDI conclude that successful growth in the developing countries is premised essentially on raising the domestic savings rate to a high level and productively investing these savings.
The East Asian growth success is based mainly on high domestic savings rather than FDI. Countries like Taiwan, Korea, Japan and China did not rely much on foreign investment. Economic progress in these countries was actually always laid by domestic ventures.
Foreign investment was used just to temporarily supplement domestic savings and gain access to certain foreign markets or certain fast changing technologies, it added.
&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;doulot_akter@yahoo.com<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/Efz9eeWDsqA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 26 Aug 2017, 00:37:33http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80732/Prefer-green-field--FDI,-equity-capital-investmenthttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80732/Prefer-green-field--FDI,-equity-capital-investmentStocks rebound as pre-Eid sale pressure downhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/tHZbekJ5w1M/Stocks-rebound-as-pre-Eid-sale-pressure-down
Stocks posted a marginal gain last week that ended Thursday, after a single-week break, as investors took position on sector-specific large-cap stocks.
Dealers said the market closed positive amid increased turnover as optimistic investors showed their buying appetite on sector-wise stocks while cautious investors opted for booking profit ahead of Eid Festival.
There are only five trading sessions left before the start of the Eid-ul-Azha vacation. Trading on the bourses is scheduled to remain closed from September 1.
&quot;The optimistic investors took position on engineering, pharmaceuticals, financial institutions, food &amp; allied and banks issues while some investors sold shares to bag profit from telecommunication and power stocks, taking the market in positive territory,&quot; said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
He noted that the news of extending the share transactions from investors&#39; accounts which were suffering from negative equity burden since the market crash in 2010-11 for another 16 months also attracted the investors. &nbsp;
The week witnessed five trading sessions as usual. Of them, three session closed higher while two faced correction.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), which replaced the DGEN in four-and-a-half-year back, went up by 24.31 points or 0.41 per cent to settle at 5,885.
The two other indices -- the DS30 index and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) - also followed the suit to close at 2,111 and 1,306 points, after advancing 2.25 points and 1.44 points respectively.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also finished higher with its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, gaining 34 points or 0.30 per cent to settle at 11,034 points.
International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, said, &quot;The market returned to the green after a single-week break as investors took fresh position on the lucrative price levels in different stocks that helped the bourse to close in green&quot;.
The total turnover for the week stood at Tk 41.64 billion on major bourse which was Tk 24.46 billion in the week before as last week saw five trading sessions instead of previous week&#39;s three.
The daily turnover averaged at Tk 8.33 billion, which was 2.13 per cent higher than the previous week&#39;s average of Tk 8.15 billion.
Engineering sector dominated the turnover chart, capturing 23 per cent of the week&#39;s total turnover, followed by banks with 16 per cent and pharmaceuticals 13 per cent.
LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, said, &quot;Small cap sectors mostly drove market activity throughout the week with jute, IT, engineering and ceramic sectors gaining 10.10 per cent, 4.65 per cent, 2.63 per cent and 2.15 per cent respectively&quot;.
Among the large cap sectors, telecommunication and fuel &amp; power lost 1.24 per cent and 0.71 per cent respectively, it said.
&quot;Overall, investors are gearing up for the Eid festival coming up on September 2 and activity in the bourses has been driven by profit taking ahead of the festive period, particularly by retail investors,&quot; the stockbroker said.
The total market cap of the DSE remained almost unchanged to Tk 3,970 billion.
BBS Cables topped the week&#39;s turnover chart with shares of Tk 2.28 billion changing hands, closely followed by Bangladesh Building Systems with Tk 2.08 billion, LankaBangla Finance Tk 1.33 billion, Fortune Shoes Tk 886 million, and ACI Tk 799 million.
Monno Ceramics was the week&#39;s highest gainer, posting 42 per cent gain, while Sandhani Life Insurance Company was the worst loser, losing 18.31 per cent.
&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;babulfexpress@gmail.com<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/tHZbekJ5w1M" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 26 Aug 2017, 00:35:43http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/assets/images/news_images/2017/08/26/thumbnails/_80731.jpghttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80731/Stocks-rebound-as-pre-Eid-sale-pressure-downhttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/26/80731/Stocks-rebound-as-pre-Eid-sale-pressure-downLearning Chinese is easy and a great fun http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/XuFnJ5Xx-_k/Learning-Chinese-is-easy-and-a-great-fun%C2%A0
MANDARIN or Chinese is one of the most spoken languages in the world and if we want to learn a second foreign language after English, Chinese could be a good choice. A staggering number of people, one billion people to be exact, speak this language. I am just a beginner, but I take a lot of fun when I meet people who speak Chinese. Chinese is now considered an important language worldwide because of the country&#39;s increased presence in the business world.&nbsp;
The Chinese are involved in many businesses throughout the world including Bangladesh and it is sure that in the coming days the presence of Chinese language will spread further. Chinese is a tonal language and learning Mandarin Chinese requires a firm grip on the four Chinese tones used in speaking. When we learn a language we also learn a lot about the nation. Learning a foreign language is really fun. It is not as hard as we presume. The internet has opened a door of opportunity for us. It is a platform for learning Chinese free. Let us use it to our advantage. Zaijian! (Goodbye in Chinese)&nbsp;
Mohammed Sohel hara
Bonosree, Dhaka
sohelhara@hotmail.com<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/XuFnJ5Xx-_k" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 25 Aug 2017, 23:29:21http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/25/80730/Learning-Chinese-is-easy-and-a-great-fun http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/25/80730/Learning-Chinese-is-easy-and-a-great-fun Galloping house renthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/oyDU2AT_QdE/Galloping-house-rent
MOST people living in Dhaka do not have their own houses and live in rented houses. There are no rules and regulations for house rents in Dhaka and even if there is, it is not being implemented. The house owners increase house rents every now and then according to their sweet will. The present trend of house rents does not match the pay scales of private service holders and they have to silently suffer the tyranny of the house owners until such time the authorities do not formulate policies regarding house rent. It is high time specific regulations were framed for house rent, may be on the basis of per square meter area, so that no house owner dares charge more.
In 2015, the High Court had directed the government to form a high-power commission within six months to fix area-wise house rent in the metropolitan areas and update the Rent Control Act 1991. I would request the government to look into the matter and take urgent steps to reduce the sufferings of people with limited income who are already hard pressed due to price hike of essentials.&nbsp;
Hannan
Bonosree, Dhaka
&nbsp;<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/oyDU2AT_QdE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 25 Aug 2017, 23:28:37http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/25/80729/Galloping-house-renthttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/25/80729/Galloping-house-rentIncreasing stipend amount http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/cM_z2YYbB7o/Increasing-stipend-amount%C2%A0
THE government of Bangladesh has been providing stipends to meritorious students for brilliant results in examinations of PSC, JSC, SSC, HSC etc.; to support them financially. In recent years the number of stipends against PSC and JSC examinations has been increased in view of manifold increase in the number of students. The stipends are allocated on the basis of number of students in each upazila to ensure equitable distribution of stipends across the country. Undoubtedly, these stipends encourage recipient students to concentrate on their studies more.
Each SSC passed student under talent pool gets Tk 600 per month while those receiving general category of stipend get Tk 350 per head per month for two years. In addition, each stipend recipient gets an additional amount of Tk 300 each per year to purchase educational accessories. The amount given as scholarship is really inadequate considering the present level of commodity prices in the market. To make the stipend meaningful, the value of scholarship per month should be raised to at least Tk 1,000 for talent pool and Tk 800 for others and the allowance for purchasing educational accessories to Tk1,000 per year per head. The number of stipends for SSC and HSC examinations is very insignificant compared to the number of students and should be increased to four times the present number.
In our country the government spends very little on education compared to other nations. The expenditure on education is regarded as an investment all over the world. So the suggested enhancement should not be seen as a burden and I strongly believe that the suggested amount is fairly affordable for the government.
Md. Ashraf Hossain &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
8/A Ramna, Dhaka-1000.
mah120cb@yahoo.com
&nbsp;<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/cM_z2YYbB7o" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 25 Aug 2017, 23:20:56http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/25/80728/Increasing-stipend-amount http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/25/80728/Increasing-stipend-amount Fading glory of fisherieshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/yiJPYSVZWyc/Fading-glory-of-fisheries
Despite making firm strides, the fishery sector is still an underperforming sector, not only because it is performing below potential, but more so because the current production pattern has robbed us of the century-old taste and flavour of local varieties. Fishermen and fish traders have shifted from production and sale of local species and opted for high-yielding varieties that are devoid of traditional taste and flavour.&nbsp;
Bangladesh is one of the most appropriate regions for development of fisheries in the world and is gifted with the world&#39;s largest flooded wetland and the third largest aquatic biodiversity in Asia after China and India. It is also one of the biggest and most active deltas, fed by three mighty rivers -- the Padma, the Meghna and the Jamuna. All these features provide opportunities for fresh and brackish water fishery, in addition to the vast marine resources. In spite of all these factors in favour along with long coastline and large freshwater and marine water bodies, fisheries are underdeveloped compared to other industry sectors. Inland fishery production has escalated over the last few years, but the productivity per hectare water area is yet to attain its optimum level.&nbsp;
But since water bodies in the country have been declining, production of natural and traditional fish species has also gone down drastically.&nbsp;
Secondly, although total production of fish increased the increased, production cannot meet the nutritional requirement on the one hand and the cultured varieties of fish lack the taste and flavour of traditional local varieties on the other. This highlights the necessity of augmenting production of local varieties before everything else and to do so rivers and canals of the country will have to be brought back to their old shape. It is a cultural loss that should not be ignored.&nbsp;
Statistics shows that 54 species of sweet water fish are almost extinct, 28 species are under threat of extinction while there are 14 endangered species. A mid-term plan has to be in place to bring them back to life. As a result of pollution fishes are becoming scarce and hundreds of thousands of people have lost their livelihoods.&nbsp;
To see the fishery sector in shape, pollution of rivers and canals due to mindless disposal of domestic and industrial waste and excessive use of pesticides must be prevented and encroachment and resulting construction of structures on water bodies must be stopped. If done properly, all these will also help increase production of local species and restore their forgotten taste.
A popular complement to rice in our national diet, fish has lost its traditional taste. Given adequate government support, the fishery sector has the potential for ancillary industries in rural areas that often have a high rate of economic return. Employment opportunities for poor rural citizens would also stem their flow of migration to urban areas. The sector also opened employment opportunities for rural women. According to a survey conducted in 2015, more than 80 per cent of labourers engaged in fish processing industries were women.&nbsp;
Many industrial units known to be accountable for pollution of rivers and agricultural lands, do not have certificates from the Department of Environment (DOE) and are running without Effluent Treatment Plants (ETP). These units will have to be compelled to comply with rules regarding disposal of waste. The DOE has to take action against accused units. Restoration of lost rivers, increasing navigability of rivers, prevention of pollution, protection of bio-diversity and providing encouragement to fish farmers to cultivate local species etc.; are the demands of the time.&nbsp;
saleh.akram26@gmail.com<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/yiJPYSVZWyc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 25 Aug 2017, 23:16:19http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/25/80727/Fading-glory-of-fisherieshttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/25/80727/Fading-glory-of-fisheriesJoining solar energy superhighwayhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/Bni6MP-KywU/Joining-solar-energy-superhighway
The proverb &#39;A stitch in time saves nine&#39; still holds true particularly in making decisions of a government. The country had wasted many years to take advantage of a free under-sea submarine cable as the then government had thought such linking would harm the country&#39;s interests. But today, thanks to prompt initiative, Bangladesh is connected with the second undersea cable up to the landing station in Kuakata. &nbsp;The country currently receives 200 Gbps of bandwidth from its first connection, SEA-ME-WE 4, which was linked in 2016.
Bangladesh this time lost no time in approving a proposal for ratification of the Framework Agreement on the Establishment of the International Solar Alliance (ISA). &nbsp;The cabinet meeting last week gave the approval. The International Solar Alliance holds great promise in building a solar energy superhighway. Comprising more than 121 countries, mostly sunshine countries, the Alliance is to work together for efficient exploitation of solar energy, technological innovation, finance and capacity building to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.&nbsp;
The initiative was launched ahead of the UN Climate Conference (COP 21) in Paris in 2015. The Framework Agreement of International Solar Alliance was opened for signatures in COP 22 in Marrakech, Morocco in 2016. The Alliance will have an assembly to take decisions and a secretariat for execution of the decisions. Members of the Alliance don&#39;t need to give any subscription. However, they can give fund in terms of donation. India will be the depository of the Alliance.&nbsp;
In fact, signing of the International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement has reiterated the firm commitment of Bangladesh towards further promoting renewable energy, more particularly solar energy. This also reflects a strong determination of Bangladesh in tackling adversities of climate change and its resultant impacts. Joining the Alliance will widen the opportunities for Bangladesh to collaborate with other members in areas of solar technology, finance, research, innovation and development as well as capacity building.
Globally, renewable energy and energy efficiency promotion activities are in progress. In many countries, it has become cost-effective. Bangladesh had interaction with the Green Grid Alliance comprising members of parliament. They are thinking of installing plants in deserts like Sahara, India&#39;s Rajasthan and in China for harnessing solar power with connectivity through a superhighway. Changes in technology, which used to occur in ten years, are now taking place everyday. Bangladesh might also be connected through the Green Grid Alliance under their plan. This will be cost-effective and that is carbon-negative. This will abandon need for investment of billions of dollar in power production, building coal terminals and plants and lots of risks are there. For example, Bangladesh is going to set up a $2 billion 1,300 megawatt project, for which the country does not have the efficient manpower and management capacity. But now, one can get power through the global connectivity like that of Internet.
Bangladesh is giving billions of taka as subsidy for renewable energy through different financial institutions including Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL). But, how long will it be offering the subsidy? It can team up with Nepal and Bhutan to take 5,000 MW of hydro-power; and this will give a base-load of 5,000MW, which is a clean energy. Bangladesh is trying to optimise the productive use of sunshine.
In the 2010-21 Perspective Plan, power production from renewable energy was set at 3.0 per cent in 2020 but it has now been targeted at 10 per cent of the total production. Bangladesh will save 15 per cent of energy by 2021 and 20 per cent by 2030. The targets can be achieved because the government has put stress on production of renewable energy and energy efficiency and conservation. At the moment, production of 1,200MW of electricity is under process from solar power. In the next two-year time, all government offices will have roof-top solar panels. The government is providing funds for green financing and taking fiscal measures for ensuring renewable energy and energy efficiency. About 500MW of power is now being produced from renewable energy. There is a target for production of 500MW from solar power and Bangladesh is making progress.
Working in close cooperation with the International Solar Alliance, the country having enough sunshine, will surely make a breakthrough in solar component for power generation. Even Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, having huge oil reserves, are now taking up plans in their deserts to tap hitherto unexploited vast solar power. This is because one day, oil reserve might be depleted.
Due to shortage of gas, Bangladesh had to diversify primary energy mix for power generation. As a result, contribution of natural gas for power generation came down to 63 per cent against 93 per cent in 2009. It is now moving towards a low-cost conventional energy under medium and long-term measures. Renewable energy might not be a mainstream energy in Bangladesh at least for next few years. But it can contribute significantly to ease the crisis of conventional energy. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
Bangladesh&#39;s GDP growth was at 7.11 per cent in 2015-16. It is now moving towards the goals of Vision 2021. Industries and services sectors are contributing more to achieve this &nbsp;compared to previous fiscal year. Capital machinery import has grown at more than 40 per cent. This means, the country is gradually moving towards energy-intense economy. It will be difficult to maintain this growth rate if Bangladesh fails to ensure primary energy supply.
arjayster@gmail.com
&nbsp;<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/Bni6MP-KywU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 25 Aug 2017, 23:12:05http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/25/80726/Joining-solar-energy-superhighwayhttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/25/80726/Joining-solar-energy-superhighwayFlood protection project in limbohttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/7Pi6D3gi5aU/Flood-protection-project-in-limbo
Now that almost half of the country is literally under flood waters with human misery at a terrible state, many quarters are looking back to find flaws with the authorities concerned who, as it now appears, have done little sitting on big flood protection projects. There are projects, some of which are believed to be well targeted to address flood control during the monsoon season. One such project taken up way back in 2011 is languishing with little or no progress, having already over-run completion deadline by more than two years ago.
The project titled &#39;Pre-monsoon Flood Protection and Drainage Improvement in Haor Area&#39; was a well designed one with components meant to particularly address the situation in the low-lying haor belt of greater Sylhet and Mymensingh districts. Given that the haor belt is highly vulnerable to flash floods and that there are some unique features too in the way floods affect the livelihood of millions of people living in the areas, the aforesaid project was supposed to be a milestone in controlling flood waters. Costing over Tk 7.0 billion, the project was meant to protect nearly 30 upazilas of Sylhet, Sunamganj, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Kishoreganj and Netrakona from mansoon flooding. Thirty six of 52 haor areas under the project were in Sunamganj. A priority project by all means, it had the work-plan of building and repairing flood protection embankments and improving drainage system in the belt that experiences highest rainfall in the country.&nbsp;
Like the fate of most other projects in different fields, this one too got snagged due to many hurdles, which among others allegedly included non-disbursement of funds, lack of adequate manpower to execute and monitor progress of work, and indeed importantly, lack of thrust on the part of the implementing agency --the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB). &nbsp;The sorry state of the project is clearly evident from a report published in a national contemporary saying that since the inception of the project, the BWDB has so far been able to &nbsp;spend as little as one fifth of the project fund, including the over-run period that makes the project tenure six years. Worst perhaps is the fact that during the period as many as eleven project directors got appointed-a clear enough indication that neither the concerned ministry nor the implementing agency took care to see that the project is completed in due time under able leadership.
Observers, while expressing frustration over the project, are of the view that had the works been done as scheduled and designed, people in the large swathes of the haor belt could have been protected from the current deluge. If disbursement of fund, among others, is actually one of the reasons for poor progress, it is inconceivable why the project was undertaken when funding was not certain. &nbsp;It is pretty well known that projects such as the aforesaid one can only see success if all the inter-related components work simultaneously. Otherwise, half-done works when restarted after undesirable lapse of time, the very foundation of the work gets weakened rendering it useless. It is not known what the government is thinking to find a way out, if any, to address the matter.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/7Pi6D3gi5aU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 25 Aug 2017, 23:07:20http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/25/80724/Flood-protection-project-in-limbohttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/25/80724/Flood-protection-project-in-limboMeasuring the Internet for freedomhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/p_m8RaUzgbw/Measuring-the-Internet-for-freedom
Last year, during a wave of deadly political protests in Ethiopia, the government blocked more than 15 media websites and the smartphone chat application WhatsApp. Sites promoting freedom of expression and LGBTQ+ rights, as well as those offering censorship-circumvention tools, such as Tor and Psiphon, were also suppressed.
All of this was uncovered through the use of software called ooniprobe, which is designed to measure networks and detect Internet censorship. Ooniprobe was developed more than five years ago by the Tor-supported Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), with which I work, in order to boost transparency, accountability, and oversight of Internet censorship. The software is free and open source, meaning that anyone can use it. And, indeed, tens of thousands of ooniprobe users from more than 190 countries have already done just that.
Those users have contributed to the collection of millions of network measurements, all of which are published on OONI Explorer, arguably the largest publicly available resource on Internet censorship. Thanks to their use of ooniprobe, we uncovered the extent of last year&#39;s wave of censorship in Ethiopia, as well as details of many other cases of censorship elsewhere in the world.
In Uganda, local groups used ooniprobe during last year&#39;s general election, when the government blocked social media. Ooniprobe&#39;s network-measurement data not only confirmed the government&#39;s action; it also uncovered which sites were blocked and the different methods used by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to implement censorship.&nbsp;
Ooniprobe also came in handy in Malaysia in 2015. Facing accusations that he had transferred nearly $700 million from the state investment fund 1.0MDB to his personal bank accounts, Prime Minister Najib Razak attempted to block news outlets and blogs that reported on the scandal. It was ooniprobe&#39;s network-measurement software that enabled Malaysian civil-society groups to collect data that serve as evidence of the blocking.
Of course, censorship is not always carried out to protect the politically powerful; it can also be used to reinforce social and cultural norms. In Indonesia, for example, low social tolerance for homosexuality may have played a role in the blocking of numerous LGBTQ+ websites, even though the country does not officially restrict LGBTQ+ rights. Similar factors may have influenced efforts to block sites perceived as overly critical of Islam.
In Thailand, ISPs have, in the last three years, blocked access to a number of sites that are perceived to be offensive toward the country&#39;s royal family. But, here, there is a legal justification: Thailand&#39;s strict prohibition against l&egrave;se-majest&eacute; protects the royal family&#39;s most senior members from insult or threat. Other cases of legally justified Internet censorship include the blocking of sexually explicit websites in countries where pornography is prohibited.
Then there are cases where the motivation for censorship is unclear. Why, for example, has an online dating site been blocked in Malaysia? In some countries, ISPs appear to be censoring sites at their own discretion. According to ooniprobe data, multiple Thai ISPs simultaneously blocked access to different types of websites - from news outlets to Wikileaks to pornography - indicating that they likely received vague orders from authorities.
Before ooniprobe, such censorship was difficult to detect, leading to a lack of accountability, with governments and ISPs often denying any and all involvement. Even in cases where governments announce official lists of blocked sites, they may leave some targets off. Likewise, ISPs may not always comply with official orders to lift blocks. Vimeo and Reddit, for example, were recently found to be blocked in some networks in Indonesia, even though the official ban on those sites was lifted more than two years ago.
With ooniprobe, users are not only able to expose Internet censorship; they can also acquire substantial detail about how, when, where, and by whom the censorship is being implemented. OONI&#39;s Web-Connectivity Test, for example, is designed to examine whether access to websites is blocked through DNS tampering, TCP/IP blocking, or a transparent HTTP proxy.
Other ooniprobe tests are designed to examine the accessibility of chat apps - namely, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger - within networks, as well as that of censorship-circumvention tools, such as Tor, Psiphon, and Lantern. OONI also provides software tests that uncover the presence of systems (&quot;middle boxes&quot;) that could potentially be responsible for censorship or surveillance.
The depth of OONI data supports much-needed accountability and oversight. Lawyers can use OONI data to assess the legality of Internet censorship in their countries, and potentially introduce it as evidence in court cases. Journalists, researchers, and human-rights defenders can use the data to inform their work as well. And censorship-circumvention projects like Tor can use OONI findings on emergent censorship events to shape their tools and strategies.
OONI data can help enrich public discourse about the legality, necessity, and proportionality of Internet censorship. That makes it a critical tool for safeguarding human rights on the Internet and beyond.
Maria Xynou, a digital rights advocate, manages community research on the study of Internet censorship at the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) project.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2017.
www.project-syndicate.org&nbsp;
distribution@project-syndicate.org<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~4/p_m8RaUzgbw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 25 Aug 2017, 22:58:43http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/25/80723/Measuring-the-Internet-for-freedomhttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/25/80723/Measuring-the-Internet-for-freedom